Does Snapchat Save/Store Your Photos?

Snapchat is a clever smartphone app for iOS and Android devices that allows you to send pictures, videos and messages to your friends, and delete them immediately after the recipients have watched them. As a result, it’s a perfect tool protect your privacy. Thanks to its modern features, Snapchat is a big hit with teens and younger users.

But how safe are your photos when you send them through Snapchat? Can the recipients save your pictures on their smartphones before they are deleted? Does Snapchat save/store your photos?

Here are all the answers to your Snapchat-related privacy questions.

What does Snapchat app do?

The photos you send through Snapchat disappear after a few seconds after they’ve been watched by their recipients, never to be seen again. While that would sound disastrous if it were any other application, in this case it is deliberate. The users mainly use the app because the app makes sure that their pictures are deleted.

Hence, the app is used in all kinds of situations where privacy is of great concern. Teenagers and young adults specifically use the app to share “inappropriate” pictures with one another. Naturally, they would be worried about the pictures falling into the wrong hands. This is where Snapchat comes in to save the day by making sure that the pictures are deleted once and forever.

Does Snapchat save/store your photos?

If you are speaking from a strict user-oriented point of view, then yes, Snapchat really does take away the picture from the sender’s and recipients’ library. However, the app doesn’t delete the photos permanently from your device, but only removes the labels associated with the pictures so that the operating system doesn’t find it.

If someone is skillful enough to tinker with your Android device, then they can try to extract the pictures. Nevertheless, Snapchat developers have promised to work on this aspect and improve the privacy of their app.

Can you save Snapchat photos?

Yes, Snapchat does provide you with the option to save your photos after you’ve taken them. However, if you thinking about saving the pictures somebody sent to you, then there is no direct option to do so. Nevertheless, this limitation can be bypassed by taking a screenshot of the picture before the timer runs out, though you will only be able to save a low resolution picture.

Taking a screenshot of the picture message while seeing it is very difficult, thanks to the very short timer limit. Parents, teachers and youngsters who are using Snapchat should be aware of this possibility before they embark on sending private pictures.

Even if you managed to take a screenshot of the picture, Snapchat alerts the user to let them know that you’ve taken a screenshot of their picture. So, you need to avoid saving pictures that are not meant to be stored if you want to keep the relationship between you and the sender healthy.

Alternate methods to save Snapchat photos

Though you can save Snapchat photos by taking a screenshot of the picture message, you risk alerting the sender of your behind-the-scenes activity. Nevertheless, some users can take a photo of your phone with another phone’s camera, which the app cannot alert you about.